Trying times for President Clinton during the sex sandal with monica lewinsky - Term Paper Example

The impeachment of the former president came as a result of the scandal and a law suit that was filled by Paula Jones (Neal, 2005:135). This served as the second impeachment of a president in power in the United States of America after the impeachment of the former president Andrew Johnson in the year 1868 (Neal, 2005:136). When the impeachment proceedings were brought forward against the president in 1998 several issues were raised against the governmental processes. While some scholars took the matter lightly, others argued that sexual conduct is a serious offense and is adequate to remove an elected president from the office.

Those in support of the president argued that president just like any citizen of the United States have the right to privacy. They also stated that many other former presidents like John F. Kennedy, Roosevelt as well as Warren G. Harding had been linked to extensive extramarital sexual activity but their sexual conduct was not made available to the public. As observed by Chapman (2010: 99), the European observers were surprised that Americans engaged in impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton because he lied about his sexual conduct.

In their argument, they stated that just like any citizen of America would avoid the truth about his sexual fidelity and so Bill Clinton will. In the impeachment case against Clinton, separation of power prevailed through the proceedings. In this context, the act of not telling the truth with respect to the sexual misconduct does not constitute enough evidences necessary for impeachable offenses as defined by the constitution of the country as “high crimes and misdemeanors” (Chapman, 2010:99).

In this argument therefore, the impeachment against the president seemed partisan and was seen as an attempt by the legislature to extend its powers and responsibility past the boundary. According to Chapman (2010:100), the charges that the former president faced were not worth impeachment because they did not grow from the failure of the president with regard to the state functions. However, the failure was from his personal life which is different from his public and political life. These differences in arguments divided the legislature and there was a clear boundary in terms of opinions between the republicans and the democrats.

The question of what could constitute impeachment against a president had dominated the list of issues during Clinton’s administration. However, the fact that congress was dominated by the Republicans presented a threat to the former president since the issue had taken political angle dividing the house into pro and against impeachment camps. It is this time that the congress dominated by Republicans appointed a counsel to investigate the financial backgrounds of the president (Kogan & Kelso, 2009: 308).

The counsel which was headed by Kenneth Starr was given further responsibilities to investigate the scandal surrounding the former president and the white house intern, Monica Lewinsky. In close analysis of the unfolding events, it is clear that the push for the investigations and the impeachment of the former president was more political than legal. This is because the political enemies took the opportunity finish him politically. The trouble began when it became apparent that the intern, Monica had told